Music Composed by Edward Shearmur
Rating: *** 1/2

Not being a fan of the romantic comedy genre, there’s few romantic comedy scores I can really get into. Sure, there’s a few Thomas Newman, John Williams, or James Newton Howard romantic comedy scores I can listen to when I feel the urge to pop in something lighter into my discman, but for the most part I’m bored with this type of score. So, upon receiving Edward Shearmur’s Laws of Attraction, I approached the album with some slight trepidation. About ten minutes into the score, I discovered my fears were unfounded.

This critically maligned vehicle for Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore involves feuding divorce attorneys who develop a romantic relationship due in part to binge drinking, a trip to Ireland, and delightfully discommodious misunderstandings (I’m just guessing on that one). Imagine if George Gershwin wrote “An American in Paris” in a mixed meters and you’d have a good idea of Ed Shearmur’s approach to Laws - although I bet Shearmur’s intent was to remind you of another Gershwin tune - that one inspired by another big city. The first seven score tracks of the album display that same sweet sense of whimsy with emphasis on the clarinet for melody, joined by pizzicatti strings, piano runs, and mallet percussion. These cues make it clear this is a score to a comedy. Thankfully, the score never becomes too cloying, although a few passages of pizzicato mickey-mousing in a handful of cues come close to that territory.

Edward Shearmur

If these opening seven score tracks were turned into a concert work, they could be renamed “Variations on a Theme” as Shearmur constructs these cues tightly around his main theme. The repetition would be too much if the theme wasn’t so gosh darn cute! (And infectious!) Really, it’s Shearmur’s awesome sense of rhythm that make Laws of Attraction fresh. The pulse is distored with the melody and accompaniment constantly clashing. It totally breathes a ton of life into a score like this. The orchestrations help too. The use of marimba (especially in “Thorne and Serena”) will remind one of Thomas Newman, but Shearmur’s large heaping of brighter intstruments like flute, bells, pizz. strings, light upper strings, and piano draw your attention away from any other possible comparisons to American Beauty. I particularly enjoyed the track “Chinatown” with some nice koto-like sounds thrown in for fun.

Once we get to “A Trip to Ireland” the score changes gears. From here on out it’s celtic stylings mixed with more serious romance cues. The theme still pops up every once in awhile (with a Celtic twist like in “The Castle”), but now there’s a simpler love motive (based on the first couple pitches of the main theme, played straight), and Irish folk tunes. This half of the album is good, but I definitely preferred all the fun rhythmic stuff that preceded it. Shearmur still has fun with all the serious stuff, throwing in some chord progressions rarely heard in a romantic comedy since Claudette Colbert’s hay-day…

The Irish folk idioms make Laws feel like two separate scores rolled into one. Shearmur quotes what I believe to be a variation on “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” and he does some great things with the tune. In “An Irish Tale” he starts the tune off softly, and by the end of the track it’s soaring, a definite highlight of the album. The Irish pub-like stylings of the Irish band Shearmur employs for tracks like “The Castle” add a little oomph to the slower music that pervades the middle tracks.

The final tracks of Laws bring these thirty-five minutes of a score to a satisfying close. “Love at Last” contains that big “silver screen ending” all girls who drag their boyfriends to see this type of film are hoping for. The “Irish Eyes” tune gets another big statement, followed by a sweet, soft solo clarinet and the short love motive fading into the distance.

LaLa Land’s presentation of Shearmur’s score is excellent with lots of artwork, notes about the movie, score, and composer. The short running time may deter one from picking this score up, but it shouldn’t as too much of this type of music is not necessarily a good thing. Two songs kick off the album, Dana Glover’s “Maybe” and an Irish jig “When Sick, Is It Tea You Want?” (ummm, OK).

There’s a good reason why Ed Shearmur is quickly approaching A-list status in Hollywood right now, and it’s cause he’s got the skills to write fresh and interesting music in any genre he chooses. Can you believe this score is by the same guy who wrote for Reign of Fire and Charlie’s Angels? After releasing one excellent score after another these past few years, I can. (Originally posted June 26, 2004).

Music Composed and Conducted by Edward Shearmur; Performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra; Recorded and Mixed by by Steve McLaughlin; Produced by Edward Shearmur and Steve McLaughlin; Availability: In print; Label (Catalogue): La-La Land Records, (LLLCD 1019); Release Date: May 11, 2004

01. Maybe (4′01)
Performed by Dana Glover
02. When Sick, Is It Tea You Want? (2′26)
Performed by Temple House
03. Main Title (3′31)
04. Meet Mr Rafferty (1′36)
05. Chinatown (2′18)
06. Ambush (’45)
07. A Kiss in the Rain (1′35)
08. Daniel in the Limelight (2′01)
09. Thorne and Serena (’43)
10. A Trip to Ireland (’56)
11. Idyll (1′54)
12. Caravan Romance (1′22)
13. The Castle (1′29)
14. An IrishTale (2′31)
15. Man About the House (1′07)
16. Audrey’s Ring (1′28)
17. Daniel Asleep (2′29)
18. Daniel in the Doorway (2′14)
19. Love at Last (3′29)
20. Coda (2′14)

Total Playing Time: 41′18